A web client obtains an Internet Protocol (IP) address for accessing an Internet resource (a “resource”) by initiating a Domain Name System (DNS) query for a resolution of a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), or hostname, such as www.example.com. An IP address enables the web client to create an IP connection by which communications with the resource proceeds. Resolution, or translation, of an FQDN to an IP address is described in publication RFC 1035 of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) entitled, “DOMAIN NAMES IMPLEMENTATION AND SPECIFICATION”, by P. Mockapetris, as well as in additional IETF publications related to DNS including RFCs 1033, 1034, 1912, 2136, 2181, 2535, 2671, and 4033, the teachings of which are all incorporated herein by reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,155,723 to Swildens, et al., whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a nameserver that performs resolution based on network information, service probes, latency probes, packet loss probes, bandwidth usage and static latency information.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,996,616 to Leighton, et al., whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a map maker service that generates a nameserver map based on server performance.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,446,121 to Shah, et al., whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a nameserver configured to receive a DNS query, to send a query to each of a plurality of mirror web sites, and to respond to the query by indicating the mirror web site with the best round-trip packet time.